Letters to the Editor

Published: Sunday, January 17, 2010

Climate change debate has been 'politicized’

I have been a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) for more than 25 years. Several years ago, AAPG formed a standing Global Climate Change Committee (GCCC) with the goal of maintaining balance on the issues. It has met that goal admirably.

In December 2008, then-AAPG president Scott Tinker said about climate change “… science, politics and passion have become so entwined they may be impossible to separate and otherwise reasonable people on both sides can become ardently irrational. Are you a believer or a denier? Friends, these are not scientific terms.”

Here are excerpts from AP articles concurrent with the December 2009 U.N. global warming conference in Copenhagen:

-“Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Copenhagen … holding aloft candles and torches as they swarmed by night.”

-“As police cracked down on climate protestors, church bells (around the world) tolled 350 times to impress on the conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions.”

In November 2009, AAPG’s executive committee decided to disband GCCC. President John Lorenz stated, “… there was no advantage to inserting AAPG further into the climate change debate. Moreover, the debate is becoming political rather than scientific, with less-than-scientific passion on both sides.”

I unequivocally support that decision. There is insufficient scientific evidence to adequately understand the problem, much less determine solutions. The climate change bandwagon is, quite simply, out of control.

KENNETH H. WIESE/Lubbock

Did Leach debacle overshadow real problems?

After reading Walt Nett’s “Street Scene” (A-J, Jan. 10), I’m wondering why Texas needs union members from New Mexico for green jobs training. Is it a contingency to get the stimulus money? Are we so caught up in the Coach Leach debacle we are not paying attention to the real problems?